This book was a little strange and whilst I wanted to like it a lot, mainly on the merit of the author, I’m afraid it was quite tedious to read at times. As usual I enjoyed the British wit. I constantly smiled while reading it, yet knew, a gut-feeling nestled deep down in my stomach, that is was in reality a sad book. There was that constant melancholic undertone to the otherwise humorous, light fun. It is a thought-provoking book for sure. Beautifully and intelligently written as you would expect from Sue Townsend, it is in places briefly uplifting yet on the whole seemed to be a slightly melancholy, cautionary tale which serves as a reminder that we are all the same underneath all of our learnings and affectations and that we all seek that one person who understands us and accepts us for who we really are.

As the book went on, I became angry with the main character, because she was so totally unrealistic. The book was billed as being about a woman who'd had enough, and finally given up the struggle - and that idea interested me. What I got was a well off woman with two shitty kids and a berk of a husband, who really, I felt no one would ever have married. Ostensibly, Townsend’s novel is a light, humorous and unpretentious look at modern middle-class (dysfunctional) family life – the story of a woman who makes a conscious decision (being seemingly neither physically mentally unwell) to retreat from life, from the expectations of her and her role as mother, daughter and wife. Ennek a regénynek az olvasása döbbentett rá valamire, amit igazából eddig is tudtam. A pillanatnyi életszínvonalam sokkal jobb, ha minőségi könyvet olvasok. I've read maybe one other Sue Townsend book, and that was The Queen and I. So, I didn't know what to expect from this book, and I'm still not sure what category it falls into. Legions of fans, believing she is protesting, gather in the street. While Alexander the white van man brings tea, toast and sympathy. And from this odd but comforting place Eva begins to see both herself and the world very, very differently. . .The characters are developed real bad and represented rather poorly. So many sensitive issues about marriage, child rearing, pregnancy, lgbt/gay, family, disability issues are dealt with very insensitively. Nagyon ritkán hagyok félbe könyvet, általában akkor sem "direkt", hanem egy idő után elfogadom a tényt, hogy ha már X ideje nem nyúltam hozzá, valószínűleg már nem is fogok.

Her most recent novel, The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, was published in 2012 by Michael Joseph and was a giant success, selling over half a million copies to date in the UK alone. Sadly this month we were a couple down due to life and illness, but that still did not stop everyone taking part thanks to the magic of iPad where comments could be sent at the same time as discussion. There was a definite response from L that she would not be able to spend a whole year in bed, a day was bad enough whilst ill. This was probably the consensus of most of us, and we would only stay in bed if really ill and not through some sort of decision made as Eva does in the book. W much prefers the sofa with a blanket if ill. Her husband Dr Brian Beaver, an astronomer who divides his time between gazing at the expanding universe, an unsatisfactory eight-year-old affair with his colleague Titania and mooching in his shed, is not happy. Who will cook dinner? Eva, he complains, is either having a breakdown or taking attention-seeking to new heights.So she decides to go to bed - for a year, because that's what you do. She is not depressed, just a bit tired she says and likes bed. By the time we got to the bit when she was thinking walking to her ensuite to use the toilet was wrong, as she was "leaving the bed" and asked hubby to get some large plastic bags and tubing so she can deposit bodily fluids from the bed I was rolling my eyes and praying it got better, guess what? It didn't. Vagy én öregszem és leszek válogatósabb az évek során, vagy ez tényleg az egyik leggyengébb könyv, ami valaha a kezembe került... (a kettő nem zárja ki egymást) With a teeming cast (and there are several more characters who come and go with a certain randomness) and an inviolable organising principle – Eva will not leave her bed, come what may – Townsend was unlikely to run short of comic opportunities. There is much here that her fans will recognise from Adrian Mole's various diaries and from her other books, which include flights of fancy involving lightly fictionalised politicians and the royal family: her perfectly pitched sense of the pathos and absurdity of suburban life; the way that she sends up her misfits and malcontents while simultaneously displaying great tenderness towards them; her understanding of the defences that people build to keep what threatens to overwhelm them at bay.

Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades, The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year is her hilarious new novel. There were no other interesting , heroic, funny or endearing characters to save the story and certainly no one to identify with. Predictably, a wife and mother isn't allowed to hide in plain sight without meeting some fairly fierce opposition. Who will cook Brian's dinners, or iron his shirts, or creosote the new fence? Who will keep remote tabs on their twins, mathematical prodigies whose asocial tendencies mean that they are unlikely to slip easily into the swim of college life? Completing the family tableau are Eva's mother Ruby and her mother-in-law Yvonne, neither of them particularly reliable sources of support; and Eva soon finds herself confronted with a mixture of outrage and puzzled disbelief.Award-winning novelist Hayley Long revels in the latest offering from national treasure Sue Townsend, The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year. The first of these, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾ was published in 1982 and was followed by The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (1984). These two books made her the best-selling novelist of the 1980s. They have been followed by several more in the same series including Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years (1993); Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction(2004); and most recently Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years (2009). The books have been adapted for radio, television and theatre; the first being broadcast on radio in 1982. Townsend also wrote the screenplays for television adaptations of the first and second books and Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (published 1998, BBC television adaptation 2001).

I hoped this book would be funny, but sadly, it isn't. A woman called Eva decides, for no good reason that I can see, or any reason at all, to stay in bed for a year. Somewhat improbably, she manages to get several people, including her husband, mother, and mother-in-law, all running around bringing her food and drink. Even more improbaby, a handsome handyman called Alexander takes an inexplicable fancy to her, and starts running aroun waiting on her too. And people start coming to her for advice (why?). Most of the characters in the book, including Eva herself, are very tiresome people.Main character wasn't likeable. Can imagine the same plot written to make the main character seem despairing/given up, but she seems (and is eventually portrayed as) as someone who is simply being petulant. (For example the piece early at the beginning with discussion of her bodily functions/the "White Pathway").